The Pittsburgh Steelers lost two key pieces of their team for extended time on Sunday with DL Cameron Heyward projected to miss nearly two months while recovering from a sports hernia surgery while WR Diontae Johnson will miss up to four weeks after suffering a hamstring injury against the San Francisco 49ers.
With Johnson slated to miss nearly a month of action, the rest of the wide receiver corps will have to make up for his absence in the lineup. QB Kenny Pickett said the exact same thing Wednesday when speaking to the media, stating that they will need all hands on deck to make up for Johnson being out of the lineup going forward.
“Yeah, I think it’s by committee,” Pickett said to the media Wednesday on video from Steelers.com. “Obviously, Diontae is a really good player; does so many good things for us and was really kind of trending in the right way. I thought we had a great offseason. He was doing great things in the game. Just now, everyone’s gotta step up and pick it up. It can’t just be one guy. But I have a ton of reps with everybody, so I’m confident they’ll go out there and execute.”
Johnson’s status as a top-flight wide receiver in the National Football League may be debated, but he is a steady producer in Pittsburgh’s passing game. He has been the lead target-getter in the offense for the past three seasons, being one of the best route runners in the league. A skill that allows him to draw targets at a large rate. He may be knocked for being held scoreless last season, but Johnson has played at a Pro Bowl level in the past, getting the nod back in 2021 after recording 107 receptions for 1,161 yards and eight TDs.
Luckily, Pittsburgh has much better depth at wide receiver this season than they did last year after they traded Chase Claypool to the Chicago Bears. They have WR George Pickens who will likely be the top target with Johnson sidelined as well as Allen Robinson II who has been a high-volume WR1 for a long stretch of his career in the past, being able to play inside and outside. Pittsburgh also has Calvin Austin III who mentioned that he’s gotten work both inside and outside, thus probably presenting the option of interchanging him and Robinson outside and in the slot depending on the formation.
Pickett spoke about his confidence in the second-year Austin stepping up with more playing time on the horizon, having gone to him heavily in the second half once Johnson went down to the tune of six receptions on six targets for 37 yards in his first career regular season game.
“Yeah, it’s been high,” Pickett said about his confidence in Austin. “It’s always been high on Calvin. He does a great job. He works so hard. Always where I need him to be. So, I think that’s why we had success working together and I’m excited to get it back out there one day and continue that success.”
With it being a bad day at the office for the offense, George Pickens put up a mediocre stat line of five receptions on seven targets for 36 yards, finishing behind the other top receivers in total yardage on the day. Pickett was asked if he believes that Pickens needs to get involved in the offense more, to which Pickett responded that Sunday may not have been Pickens’ day, but those bigger days will be coming for the second-year wideout.
“I mean, he’ll naturally get more as it goes,” Pickett said about Pickens. “It just kind of shook out that way that [Calvin Austin] had a lot, [Allen Robinson] had a good amount. I mean, he still had his touches, but we obviously want to get him more involved. So that will continue to be a challenge as we go.”
Losing Johnson isn’t great for the Steelers, but the wide receiver corps has been prepared to handle something like this occurring. Factor in TEs Pat Freiermuth, Connor Heyward, and Darnell Washington, and Pittsburgh still has a plethora of pass catchers available to utilize in different ways. Hopefully, Johnson can get back healthy quickly, but now we will see how Pickett works with the other complementary pieces in the passing game with more reps and targets coming their way.
